Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
13-15, 6-11P12
Arizona
9-19, 2-15P12
Strong Second Half Carries Buffs Past Wildcats, 66-51
February 27, 2015 | Women's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
TUCSON, Ariz. – In an up-and-down season for the Colorado women's basketball team, Jen Reese and the Buffs punched the UP button and held it for the entire second half of Friday night's game against Arizona.
With Reese scoring 14 of her game-best 20 points in the final 20 minutes, the Buffs rolled to a 66-51 win in the McKale Center, defeating the Wildcats for the 11th consecutive time.
Coach Linda Lappe, who improved to 8-0 against Arizona, said she and her team are "excited about this win. It's the second game in a row that we played well and held our opponent to fewer points in the second half then the first half, so it's a great formula for us. Our depth and our bench are allowing us to do that."
Coupled with an 84-69 win over Oregon last weekend, CU won back-to-back Pac-12 Conference games for the second time this season. The Buffs, now winners of three of their last five games, close out the regular season on Sunday (2 p.m., Live Stream) at No. 10 Arizona State.
At halftime Friday night, CU (13-15, 6-11) and Arizona were tied at 28. But the Buffs came out firing – and making. They shot 60 percent from the field (15-of-25) in the second half and limited the Wildcats to 30.4 percent.
But the second-half domination also came in other forms: the Buffs were nearly perfect from the free throw line (7-of-8), recorded 9 of their 17 assists, and collected 16 of their 35 rebounds. CU committed only five second-half turnovers (12 total) and finished 9-of-10 at the foul line.
In one stretch midway through the half, Reese scored eight consecutive points as the Buffs pushed from a 39-39 tie into a 49-41 lead. Reese got scoring help from Jamee Swan (15) and Haley Smith (12). Swan also led all rebounders with eight. And Lexy Kresl chipped in with five points, five assists, six rebounds; it was her ninth game with at least five assists.
"I thought Lexy had a good floor game in the second half," Lappe said. "She really created the tempo for our team; she did it in the first and second half. She understood her shot wasn't there but I thought she got to the rim a lot. I thought she was getting beat up down there but she didn't let it bother her.
"It's funny because this week in practice I didn't call fouls for her at all and she took it really well. She didn't get frustrated in practice, and she handled it the same way tonight. It's really fun to see her still impact the game like she did even when her shot was not falling."
Losers of five in a row and eight of nine, the Wildcats (9-19, 2-15) were led by Breanna Workman and Keyahndra Cannon with 10 each.
The Buffs started strong, hitting four of their first seven shots and taking a 9-3 lead. But the Wildcats recovered with an 8-0 run and went up 11-9 with 13:26 left before halftime.
In that span, there were three ties before the break, with CU leading by as many as five points twice before suffering a sloppy finish. The Buffs committed three of their seven first-half turnovers in the final 2:34 and had to be satisfied with the 28-28 halftime tie.
A 2-3 zone defense in the second half put the onus on Arizona's perimeter shooters – and they encountered problems. The Wildcats hit only seven of their 23 second-half attempts while CU took advantage with a Reese-inspired 10-3 run and steadily pulled away.
"I thought our zone worked pretty well; we worked on it a little bit in practice, not a lot, so you have to give our players credit for being able to execute it like they did," Lappe said. "They were talking and moving extremely well. Sometimes the toughest thing to do out of a zone is to rebound and our guards rebounded along with our post players. Towards the end of the game we finally beat them in the rebounding category, which is always an important statistic for us."
CU took a 10-point advantage (54-44) on a conventional 3-point play by Swan with 5:05 to play, then extended the lead to 16 (62-46) in the final two minutes and won its second Pac-12 road game.
At the end of her eighth successful night against Arizona, Lappe credited "a great attitude by our club. I thought our starters got us started on the right foot; we were pushing in transition. The offense I was calling was really slowing the ball down, so we didn't go back to that in the second half. Instead, we were in our more up-tempo offense.
"I thought that really helped us get great shots at the rim and be able to get to the free throw line a few more times in the second half. But you really have to credit the heart of our players. They played really inspired tonight and we are playing some of our best basketball. And now we put two great games together and the challenge is to put a third one together."
